topic Convert character variable to DateTime in SAS Enterprise Guide

Convert character variable to DateTime

sdang — Mon, 04 May 2015 19:49:52 GMT

Hi all, I want to convert StartTime and EndTime which are character variable to datetime variable so I can do calculation. Please see our they are structured in my data source.

For example, the first row, I want my calculation to say that customer started at 11:00 AM and ended 11:00 AM. You are welcome to offer me another option of getting my desire calculation without any conversion.

Thank you ahead.

Re: Convert character variable to DateTime

BrunoMueller — Mon, 04 May 2015 20:31:01 GMT

You can convert these type of text strings using the ANYDTDTM informat. Unfortunately it will not read the milliseconds. In the code below two methods are shown, one using the ANYDTDTM informat, the other uses a combination of two informats for the date and time part and then combine the date and seconds together using the DHMS function.

data want;
  dateHave = "2015.03.03 11:19:41.440"; 

  dateWant = input(dateHave, anydtdtm19.);

  dateWant2 = dhms(
    input(substr(dateHave, 1, 10), yymmdd10.)
    , 0
    , 0
    , input(substr(dateHave, 12), time16.)
  );

  format dateWant: datetime22.3; 
run;

Re: Convert character variable to DateTime

sdang — Mon, 04 May 2015 20:49:01 GMT

Thank you, it was helpful.